Posts Tagged ‘meat

It was a lovely morning for a tailgate — a little cool. By the time we got into the game, it was positively hot and sunny. It was a short and sweet tailgate before a noon game, and a smaller crowd than usual, too, with the Crappies away at Podcamp and the Coochie Doctor and Matlock delayed by parental and professional responsibilities (like surgery, for example). And Fred and Ethel – well, we weren’t super-punctual. No surprise. But we got the eggs there in plenty of time for the massive pile of hash. And we did have guests: high school friends of Pat’s.

We’ll talk later about the parking situation (kind of a mess) and the game itself (hooboy Ohio State looked good), but here’s a quick look at our day on Thursday which, despite some obstacles, was a great start to the 2010 season:

I arrived in Columbus to find that there would be little chance of forgetting the damn seat cushions.

We didn't think we'd be parking here, but the South Lincoln lot turned out to be a good home.

We’re a couple days away from the first party of the season, and this one will be a little different:

Night game. Not terribly unusual, but a number of other factors make the Marshall game unique.

Weeknight game. This doesn’t happen very often. As in, this has happened only once before, when Ohio State hosted Wyoming in a Thursday night game — also a season opener — a few years back.

Weeknight traffic. Football parking doesn’t open until 3 p.m., so we can only hope that the folks who actually have to work at the university heed the warnings to head out early or work from home. OSU has said that some of the parking pass lots — one of which we’ve used for 10 years — could still have cars of university employees in them, which would limit the spaces available for us football types.

Parking, Part II. This has less to do with the weeknight thing, although it will help make Thursday’s tailgate interesting. We’ve been hearing stuff about our lot being unavailable for football parking this year, and apparently, that’s going to be an issue. Bud and Pat have been scouting for a while — and hadn’t noticed anything different — but Ethel sent this message today:

I have been looking and looking at the football parking info trying to figure out the situation in our lot. I just came across this: “Due to construction, there will be no parking in the South Lincoln and Parks Hall lots.” Parks Hall – that is us. I don’t know if they bothered to inform you. Have you given thought to another location? I don’t know how those season passes work – ie if they mandate where you park based on the type of pass you get.

Ouch. That doesn’t sound good. I did notice that the map run in the Dispatch over the weekend still listed one of the lots directly south of our regular spot as a permit lot, so I’m hopeful we’ll still find something close. There’s little use in worrying about it on Thursday, because that’s a whole different situation, but we’ll see what happens for the rest of the season.

And then we have food. We occasionally try to come up with main dishes that involve eating the other team’s mascot; this was especially easy when we played a home-and-home against Texas a few years ago. Of course, Marshall’s official mascot is the Thundering Herd, and I have no idea what that means in terms of food. But if you take a look at the logo, you’ll notice a prominent bison head — which, to me, is pretty much the tastiest beef you’ll ever put in your mouth.

We generally pride ourselves on cooking for these things, but in this case — time limitations, potential parking issues and a relatively short time in the lot — we’re going to buy instead. Here’s what Bud suggested:

I should specify: the meat — brisket, in this case — will come from City Barbeque, the excellent local chain in Columbus. We seem to settle on something from City about once a season, and it doesn’t feel much like we’re settling for anything.

That’s the plan, boys and girls. Once we figure out the parking thing, we’re going to eat and drink well, and then head inside for the first game of the year. I’ll let you know how the preparations are going on Thursday morning, and I think you can expect an update from the lot before we wrap it up. See yinz in Columbus.